Coffee & Tea Festival ICED Cools Down Philly This June

Get ready to kick-off summer with a spectacular tasting of iced beverages at the Philadelphia Navy Yard as Starfish Junction Productions, producer of the popular Coffee & Tea Festival, gets ready to refresh the city of brotherly love at the first of its kind Coffee & Tea Festival Philly Iced.

This festival of iced beverages focusing on coffee and tea will be held on Sunday, June 5, 2016 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard - Marine Parade Grounds. This family-friendly event will provide attendees the opportunity to taste best-selling, many hand crafted, products from more than 40 local, national and international exhibitors. Information can be found at: CoffeeAndTeaFestival.com/PhillyIced.

The Coffee & Tea Festival Philly Iced is modeled after the successful Coffee & Tea Festival series of events which have been running annually since 2006. "The Coffee & Tea Festival has been a wonderful celebration of everything related to coffee and tea, but with approximately 85% of the tea consumed in America being iced this event is a natural expansion of what we do; it only makes sense to give consumers an event that focuses specifically on what they love and introduces them to the expansive world of iced tea and coffee,” explained event manager Kristyn Dolan.

Cold brew coffee has seen incredible growth this past year, so much so that coffee enthusiasts might even argue it is the 'summertime beverage of choice.' Research from Mintel notes that cold brew coffee sales had an estimated 115% growth from 2014, reaching $7.9 million in retail sales."

Festival organizers are looking to bring a wide variety of iced beverages to showcase at this mid-Atlantic gathering sure to 'chill' tastebuds this summer. Like the hot version of the Coffee & Tea Festival, the event will feature a varied line-up of exhibitors—both local and national—providing tastings of their best products, seminars for attendees to learn more about their favorite beverages, and products available for purchase. Contests focused on coffee/tea mixology and activities like coffee painting are all planned for a full-day of warm weather fun.

Some of Philly's finest food trucks will also be present to serve up some of the best street food on the sun-soaked festival grounds. Food is not included in the price of admission but will be geared toward lunchtime favorites that are easily accompanied with iced tea and iced coffee.

The event is also perfectly timed for attendees to stock-up on their favorite iced teas in advance of National Iced Tea Day to take place June 10, 2016.

Tickets, which include product tasting and a souvenir cup, can be purchased online for $20 at the festival website: CoffeeAndTeaFestival.com/PhillyIced . Shopping bags will be distributed to the first 1,000 attendees. The event will take place rain or shine on June 5, 2016 from 11AM-4PM on the Marine Parade Grounds at the Philadelphia Navy Yard located at 4747 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19112. Tents will be provided for shade and shelter. Attendees are encouraged to purchase their tickets in advance to avoid a sell-out. A limited number of tickets will be sold. For tickets and information, visit www.CoffeeAndTeaFestival.com/PhillyIced

100% Compostable Single-Serve Coffee Pods

This month, in honor of Earth Day, American consumers will be introduced to the first certified 100 percent compostable single-serve coffee pod.

Hills Bros.® Coffee in certified 100 percent compostable pods officially goes on sale at Chicago retailers such as Jewel, Mariano's, Copps, Woodman's, and Pick 'n Save, as well as online at Amazon.com and shopmzb.com

In 2014 alone, more than 10 billion plastic single-serve cups were thrown into landfills

The PURPOD100™, a coffee package developed by Club Coffee of Canada, is certified to break down in less than 84 days in municipal composting facilities, quickly and safely returning the product to the soil

Certification by the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) is what differentiates the new Hills Bros. coffee pods from competitors in the U.S. marketplace

Products or packaging with unverified "biodegradable" and "compostable" claims can be very misleading to the public, as well as municipalities and composting facilities expected to process those materials

The BPI logo, which is displayed on certified compostable products and packaging, includes a unique ID number for each company that can be identified on BPI's online catalog (products.bpiworld.org)

coffeecomposting.com contains educational videos, household tips, and links to sites about composting; helps consumers search for nearby composting facilities; teaches how consumers can advocate for more composting services in their areas.

A New "Buzz" in the Tea World
by Eric dos Reis

Sometimes life requires a little more “get up and go” then your regular morning tea (or coffee) can provide. For those days, Inko’s introduces its organic tea based energy drink. Unlike most other energy drinks on the market, Inko’s energy drink does not contain any unnecessary added sugars and uses natural caffeine to keep drinkers going. It is also a certified organic beverage.

Inko’s contains a short list of ingredients in comparison to other top energy drink brands. With Inko’s vast knowledge of tea it is no surprise to find the very first ingredient in the list is Organic brewed tea. Other ingredients such as organic cane sugar and stevia, Organic natural flavoring, and organic American ginseng are included on the list as well. No ingredients on the list sound, chemical, artificial, and surprisingly all of the components of the drink are easy to pronounce. Although the ingredient list does not directly say what the properties of their caffeine source stems from, they do note that it is “organic caffeine derived from organic botanicals”; the addition of organic guarana and ginseng without a doubt help to amplify the energizing effects of the drink.

Besides having the words “energy drink” printed all over the can, the words “Jitter-Free Energy” are also present multiple times. While many of us know the wonderful effects of drinking tea, from the sustainable energy enhancement to the antioxidants found in tea, curious consumers might ask can an energy beverage that claims to have 165mg per bottle really be jitter-free? We decided to have a tasting to find out the answer.

The drink comes in three different flavors, blackberry, citrus, and mango. We popped open the cans and immediately got a light fruity smell on the nose. We poured the beverage into our cups and noticed a clear liquid with a slight tint of the fruit used, the liquid was lightly carbonated. We expected a slightly sweeter taste but were pleasantly surprised to find that it was not overwhelmingly sweet like most other energy drinks. The drink reminded us of a flavored seltzer while just being a tad fruitier. As we enjoyed our drinks we slowly got that well known feeling that energy drinks are known for, although not as drastic as other drinks we’ve tried. We felt as though our energy boost was more sustainable and not as much of a spike, we felt no crashing feeling, and… there were no jitters! With this drink only containing 100 calories, we were impressed.

The final verdict, if you are searching for a healthier source of energy that also doesn’t make your body feel like it’s running on overdrive, look no farther and check out Inko’s Organic Energy at your local supermarket. Find out more information about Inko’s Organic Energy at www.inkostea.com.

New Coffee Subscription Service BOXO Delivers a Taste of America's Best Local Roasters

BOXO, founded in 2015 by entrepreneur Derek Kean, began as a service in Hong Kong called 88Beans. Kean saw a lack of quality coffee in Hong Kong and sought to import coffee from different parts of the world. Inspired by his own experience, he founded BOXO to bring the concept of exploring coffee city by city to coffee lovers all over the United States.

BOXO, a monthly coffee subscription box service aimed at the adventurous, has launched. Subscribers that sign up at Boxo.coffee are invited to explore coffee from local roasters across the United States. Each month's box features two top roasters from a chosen city.

The BOXO team meets with local roasters in selected cities to discuss and sample their best products. They then select the best from two roasters to include in the monthly box. Beans are shipped to customers within five days of roasting to ensure absolute freshness.

"BOXO comes from my own passion for experiencing coffee from different places," says founder Derek Kean. "Our subscribers have the unique opportunity to have an adventure, a taste of the best coffee from a different city, delivered right to their doorsteps every month. BOXO is for people that love to explore a variety of flavor profiles and want to try what roasters from all over the country have to offer."

Featured roasters so far include Thou Mayest and Oddly Correct from Kansas City, Tanager and Cellar Door from Portland, Brooklyn Roasting and City of Saints from Brooklyn, Panther and Eternity from Miami, and Flat Track Coffee and Wild Gift from Austin.

Customers can sign up at Boxo.coffee on a monthly or annual plan, and can choose to receive one or two pounds of coffee beans with each delivery.

Turvani Launches Discovery Engine for Tea

Tea novices and enthusiasts alike now have a platform for making the best tea selection.

Turvani today announced the launch of its website and online store. The website intelligently recommends new tea based on a customer's taste profile and gives tea drinkers a simple way to experience and discover premium tea.

More than 50% of the American population drinks tea on any given day. More people are drinking tea and more people are interested in exploring new and interesting tea. Tea drinkers are looking for tea with an interesting story, an exceptional experience, and, most importantly, unique and complex flavors that can only come from premium tea.

However, as people begin to explore tea, they're finding it difficult to find unique tea they'll enjoy. Discovering tea can be an uneasy process and rife with questions. Until now, tea drinkers have been forced to stick with what they know, order online and risk getting something they don't like, or finding a teashop and hoping the sales person can recommend something to try.

"I never knew if the sales person was recommending us something he thought we would like or if he was just trying to sell us something" says Samir Balwani, founder of Turvani, "I knew there must be a better way to find different tea to try."

Turvani plans to make the process of discovering tea simple and easy. Its website uses an algorithm to recommend tea based on the flavors and attributes of tea the customer has reviewed in the past. As the customer reviews new tea, the system generates new recommendations and continually updates the customer's profile.

Now, tea drinkers can discover new tea without the worry thanks to Turvani's website and premium tea. http://www.turvani.com